Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1887-10-07
Is ii Not True?
EDITOR STANDARD:

EDITOR STANDARD:
There is one thing to which | have
very decidedly made up my mind, al
ter residence in Olympia almost
long enough to be reckoncd as belong
ing to the ancient and honorable old
settler" (may his shadow never he less)
class, and that is, that the offices
the official character of this city-has
done it more harm than good. | never
saw a capital town in my life that
amounted to a " hill of beans"
The very fact that certain amount
of money must come to the capital in
salaries and patronage of various
kinds q think about 100000 year
comes to Olympia kills the spirit Of
enterprise among the people. An Off
cial town is very like the child OF
wealthy parents. He knows he is pro-
vided for; there is no need to make
an exertion for himself; he has enough
and he will not work any more than
one of our " siwash" brethren, who
when advised to go to work and earn
money replied: "White man don't
work when he got enough; Indian got
enough now" candidly think that
had Olympia not been the capital, we
should have had an active and pros
porous population to-day of, at least,
ten thousand people. The fine bodies
of land which surround this city would
have been in cultivation blossoming
as a rose" and not held dead for years
in the hands of spectators. Large
tracts OF land within the town limits
would not to-day be lying in a state of
nature, waiting for boom to strike
the town, so that the owners, who have
never sown, may reap rich harvest
when they should plat them into town
lots. Thousands of tons of produce
would have been shipped from this
port yearly from farm, orchard and
dairy. Merchant mills would now be
saving our unequalled timber instead
of its being towed away from our har-
Dor to enrich some other locality. So,
when l read iffa newspaper or hear
from a resident great wall go up
that other towns are trying to steal
the capital and the Government offices
away from Olympia" l feel like say
ing "the sooner the better" The
sooner the people of this city and
county wake up and 60 to work for
themselves and stop depending upon
the crumbs thrown to us from the
official table, the happier and more
prosperous we shall be. Unquestion-
ably this is the most beautiful town on
the Pacific coast, from Mexico to Alas
ka, and the county of Thurston is
without doubt the richest in all ma
tural resources west of the Cascade
mountains. Its finances are in n
sound condition and its inhabitants,
both in town and out, may lay claim to
intelligence and thrift as marked as
any locality in the country. More
poor men own their homes and have
such comforts about them as were I'M
known TO those in the same walk of
life in the preceding generation, and
fewer in number and less in amount
are the encumbrances upon these
homes than any other part of the Ter
ritory with which am familiar.
Iqucstion if the much Dragged of
prosperity and wealth of King and
Pierce counties, when their liabilities
were paid, would show very much
more net cash than our own county.
We have the material, in every way,
for great and prosperous people in
the years to come, here at the head Of
navigation on the great inland sea of
Puget Sound, and have faith to be-
lieve that the day of our awakening to
a realizing sense of our great possibili-
ties and the utilizing of them is not
far distant. s.